The Practice of Professional Consulting

PREFACE

There has never been a better time to be a consultant. Like the medieval craft guilds that built the great cathedrals of Europe, consultants are the modern-day builders of business cathedrals, using data, information, and technology systems to develop business strategies that help businesses grow. Technology consultants design systems that enable companies to make money through the manipulation and selling of information. Strategy consultants conceive future plans; management consultants reengineer organizational structures, administrative systems, and workflows; and human resources consultants train employees on the skills to make it all work.

As was true for medieval craftsmen, the quality of the products and services produced by consultants—in ...